“Mine’s called Fifi” Those were the exact words a former coworker of mine used to describe her car on one of those weird occasions in which coworkers decide to amuse you by letting you talk about your hobby, even if they are not particularly knowledgeable or interested in it. That was odd; even as a car fan, I never did actually name any of the cars in the family.

Oh, I do get attached to my cars–far too attached for my own good, I think. If they get scratched, I get colossally angry; when they run properly, it’s a source of joy. Getting into them after a long day of work feels exactly the same as meeting an old friend you see every day yet you’re always aware of how lucky you are to have such a reliable companion around you. When you complete a long trip in them, it feels as an accomplishment rather than something they were designed to do; when they break down, you hope it’s not expensive enough that it’ll prove fatal. But a name? Not really.

The Tercel already came with that name from the factory, a soulless one considering they made a couple million cars with the same moniker, but Tercel is still its name. If for some reason I don’t refer to a car by its name I’d just refer to it by something that’s obvious about it (red, brown, beater) or by a diminutive of its brand (Mitsu, ‘yota, Merc). Putting a name to your car can only increase your bond with it, but I’ve just never seen the point of it.

That’s not to say that it’s wrong to do it, my coworker had certainly created a bond with Fifi, her red Honda Fit (In hindsight, I should’ve really seen what car it was by the name). She wasn’t the least bit interested on driving dynamics, or how the CVT in her car was depriving her of even the audible enjoyment of driving and replacing it with an incessant drone. As far as she was concerned it was cute and it got her where she wanted to while using little fuel. Considering the way she talked about Fifi, it was nothing less than pure car love, just not the kind of car love we’re used to. What about you? Is your car a J30, a ‘brown box’ or a ‘Barry’? Do you know someone that names them?

125 Comments

Yep, and partially because my youngest likes to name them. My current vehicle is named “The Redinator” which is.. oddly appropriate. My wife named her new vehicle “Chrissy”. I have no idea where that one came from..

If you give your set of wheels a name like Pogfart or Rupert or whatever …errr ..umm ..isn’t that personalizing it to the extent that it is fulfilling some emotional need better filled by an actual real person or a pet ..it’s like making the vehicle an idol ..a bit sad i think ..just my tuppence worth (of course a personalised plate is another matter..a valid bit of individualizing the machinery..lol)

Usually the only informal name I give a car is POS, the rest of the time it’s called by the name given by the maker, i.e. ‘Versa’. If I had a car with a designation like in the top picture, it would probably devolve to the make name and color.

Mine was a 1997 E350. I had to make repairs on the side of the highway on 5 of the 6 trips that I used it. Every other time I needed it, it was broken down in the yard. I lost a good deal of money and business on that truck.

The person who bought it cut it in half, and made a trailer out of the van body. I offered to help if he wished to light the front on fire and push it down a hill.

Wow. Blast from the past. I drove an international 6 ton refer back in the early ’70s that was of indeterminate age, and if fit the same description. The driver’s door was wired shut, the brake tank filled with water every couple of hours as the vacuum boost dissipated, and the carburetor needed constant fiddling. I nearly killed a Cadillac at the bottom of a steep hill on Route 20 near Worcester, MA. If the parking brake had not been operative, things would have been tragically different. The string of symbols describes it perfectly.

My wife has named most of our cars since we got married 30 years ago. Her current vehicle is a Highlander named “Angus”. Other notable names from the past include “Chief” the Grand Prix, “Houston” the Astro van, “Chip” the Camry (it was painted Salsa Red), and “Henry” the F150. As you can tell most of the names are obvious. It is not something I would do but it doesn’t hurt and adds a bit of whimsy to one’s life.

It used to be a lot more common, at least among the English… my grandmother had a 1920s Morris Cowley which was named “the Red Peril” when she had it resprayed red after she was in an accident, and my parents had a 1958 Morris Minor Tourer named “Topsy”.

I forgot – while my then-brother-in-law was restoring a 1965 Cadillac, he had another one for parts and transport in the meantime. The restored one was Beauty, and the parts car (which was flat black and missing the grille) was the Beast.

Oh sure! I’ve had a lot of cars that had names, from the beginning up to now, with some notable standouts… A ’77 Fury x cop named “Fred” and a ’72 AMC Hornet conveniently and somewhat suggestively known as “Horney”. And no, the end for both came not without some drama, albeit with some long standing good memories! I have always thought naming something gives it life, a human quality. Does anyone name their phone or iPad? Someday, I really need to digitize my old car pix, some of them really were something…others, not so much!

My current ride, the Jetta, is known as “Fritz”, in spite of it’s Mexican birth…though with VW’s spotty record for reliability, that might not be the best choice, tho nothing has gone “on the fritz” in the year I have had him.

The 98 Civic was “Scooter” for it’s agile and responsive nature.

The Escort was “Cujo” for it’s personality being the opposite of the Civic, and it’s tendency to bite me from time to time.

I bought my ’66 Marlin in 1980. Rusting and mildewed. (Restored her and still have her 35 years later!) Had a great mechanic at the time, and when he cracked her hood, he declared, “This is an American Motors abortion.” So, her name is “Abby”. (“Abigail” when she is cantankerous.) And her parts car was “Shabby”! Have had 23 cars in addition to Abby, and all have had names. I won’t bore you with them, except the Jeep Wrangler was “Willy” for obvious reasons. I credit my Mom with car-naming. She named her first car, a 1962 Corvair Monza sedan, “Cassandra”.

My cars have all had names. My mother and sisters also name their cars, and while we’ve named my dad’s cars, he doesn’t use them.

My ’64 Impala is Betty. When I bought her 16 years ago, I asked the owner if the car had a name. He said her name was Betty, and I thought it fit her perfectly. Although I will sometimes refer to her as my ’64 or my Impala, most of the time, I use Betty. Even my girlfriend, who does not name her cars, calls Betty by her name.

She also named my ’10 CTS Elvis. She was tossing out — and I was rejecting — different names, but when she came up with Elvis, I knew that was the one. A previous Cadillac, a ’91 Sedan de Ville, was named Cruella after my favorite Disney villian.

When I was in junior high, after the 1979 gas price spike, my dad bought a ’62 Ford Falcon. I thought it was the dorkiest car in the world and was embarrassed to be seen in it. I named it Frumpy Fred. That dorky little car eventually won my respect and grudging affection after an 80 MPH blast down the freeway with the parking brake on (no dash light), but it was a Fred through and through.

My 1995 Buick LeSabre came with the name “Jennie”, but I can’t remember when I ever used that. It was written in the back of the owners manual. For all I know, Jennie may have just been the owner.

I usually call it “the old girl”, or just “the Buick”. I’ve already spent more than Jennie’s value on parts- I think that I’m attached to it enough! 😉

Other than my box truck (Which didn’t get pleasant names- see above), I’ve never named any other cars. Family members like to call my Audi wagon “Sheldon”, because someone wrote in a review that they “just couldn’t part with Sheldon” when they bought their new Audi.

As for me though, I don’t really do the whole naming thing. I don’t with much, though. I named a kitten Katrina, but I just call her Cat. 😉

Nope, no names here. If I talk to the car, it’s something like “Car, what are you doing?” in an exasperated tone of voice, or maybe “Car, stop thinking for me!” when its climate control switches to recirculate without asking anyone’s permission. We just talk about the Camry or the Ranger.

We had a dear elderly friend, though, who when she replaced her ’73 Buick Century with a ’90-something Cutlass Ciera, decided she HAD to name it. She finally named it “Cutlooz” and put that name on the car, using self-adhesive letters. Sadly, she didn’t get to enjoy that car nearly enough; just a couple years after she got it, she started having strokes.

It sure was! Wonderful movie! At one point I rented it with a woman I was dating–my second time seeing it, her first. She guessed in advance that the Land-Rover was going to end up hanging from a tree, which was more than I’d been able to do the first time around.

I always thought when I was younger that I’d name my cars, but with a few exceptions it never happened. My first Chevette was “Scooter” because it was…even after I swapped most of the Chevette Scooter specific parts for regular Chevette parts. Second Chevette my friend named “Crispy Critter” since I bought it cheap with a burned-up engine.

The only car I consciously named was “Christine” since she was a Plymouth Fury (III) and I am a Stephan King fan.

My SIL named my winter beater ’96 Vic “The Couch” due to its comfy cloth bench seat, and the name seems to have stuck 🙂 . I also call my Road Glide Ultra my Winnebago since I can pretty much bring whatever I want on a trip, (almost) including the kitchen sink 😀 !

I have often thought about naming my cars, but I just haven’t. No particular reason – it just doesn’t seem “right”.

A long time ago I had a 1964 Morris Oxford (four on the floor) which my cousin named “the brown bomber” and that kind of stuck. I currently have a citrus green first generation Honda Insight that occasionally gets called “frog” – but that’s about it.

It would be interesting to have a poll on CC about this. Having skimmed through the responses above, my rough estimate between “yes” or “usually yes” and “no” or “usually no” would be about 50/50.

My high school graduation present to myself was named Sheila. That car was an (unwanted) cougar trap. As a young man, I was completely taken aback by the attention that car drew from that specific age group of women. Ironically enough, I miss Sheila dearly…

Last car that I had a name for was my `76 Plymouth Valiant 4 door.I used to call it “Lil Satan” for obvious reasons.I also drove for a local car service company about 15 years ago. We had old out of service Ford Crown Vic police cars. The worst cab was nicknemed “The Widowmaker”, also for obvious reasons.

Out of the ninety-some cars I’ve owned, none has ever had a name except for the faded cinnamon-red 1960 New Yorker 2-door hardtop I owned for a while in the early 1990’s, which I started calling Big Red for no particular reason.

Meet James, my trusty ’96 Century wagon. He is named after the venerable James May of TopGear fame. I thought it fitting to name my car, by no means a hot rod, after the slowest and eldest presenter on the show.

My 1997 Buick Lesabre is called “Rocinante” Because just like Don Quixote’s steed , the car is old and a bit battered but still reliable.

My 1999 Pontiac Firebird is called “Blanca” and it is named after a friend because just like her it is a bit temperamental and you never know what will happen when you approach it first thing in the morning to start it up.

I had a 1987 Chrysler Lebaron that I named Issac Newton because it seemed like every time I hit a bump gravity caused some random part/trim piece to come loose or fall off.

I have always found the subject of naming cars interesting but have never felt the need to name a vehicle I own. I simply refer to them as the while car, the black car, the diesel, the 63,,,some generic term of identifying which car I am talking about. Yet I still detect a personality of each individual car.

I have a habit of naming cars in the family, if only to tell them apart since most of my family members don’t know the proper names of the cars. For example, the Rally Runner’s my ’00 Subaru Legacy 2.5, the Fifty is my 2003 Ford F-150 XLT Supercrew, the Angry Razor is my grandparent’s 2013 Lexus ES250, Stongehenge is my step-mother’s 2006 Chevrolet Equinox LS (seeing as how the damned thing can never move), and the Goat is my father’s 1987 Dodge Power Ram 250. I have a problem with attaching fitting nicknames based on the worst qualities of cars.

I’ve never been the car naming type, I mean my car already has a name, and I don’t have any particular affection towards any particular human name I feel would be more fitting. Plus I’m just not good at naming anything, when I got my first dog I pretty much just named her Shadow because a similar dog of the same name was in a movie I saw, I probably would have just called her dog if I wasn’t told to give her a name (imagine if I have kids!). It’s not lack of affection in either case, I loved that dog like a sibling, and I’ve had my Cougar for a decade, I wouldn’t have kept it this long if I wasn’t fond of it, but I just don’t put much weight or significance on a name I formally christen.

Off topic, but this is probably why I hate alphanumeric car names. I NEED someone else to come up with a fitting name for me.

My ’74 Cortina WAS nicknamed Teenie – then I had an elderly lady named Teenie in my first parish! Didn’t seem right after that.
My ’87 Ford Laser got named Lucy.
‘My ’84 Suzuki Swift was Suzy, though her current owner calls her Peanut (small, goldy brown).
My current ride, a blue ’05 Mazda 3, is nameless.

My ’93 Infiniti G20 was named Isabella by someone else. I had not previously named any of my cars. After that, I decided to give names to my cars that were correct nationality-wise. My ’00 Jetta was Rolf, and my ’07 Saab is Elsie.

I have to admit I’ve never understood the car-naming thing! While growing up all the cars in the family (with one exception) were always known as “The…”, followed by make or model, and distinguished by colour if more than one had been owned over the years. For example: The Dodge, The Plymouth, The Blue Volvo, The Sweet Cream Cortina, The Laurel, The Skyline… The sole exception was the MkII Ford Consul that my parents owned when they got married, and which was named “Connie”.

Instead of naming cars, I do, however, name GPS and talking-dashboard voices. My GPS voice is named Esmerelda; the Japanese lady in my partner’s Toyota Caldina stereo who regularly yells at us in Japanese that the ETC (toll collector) card is missing is named Hirokoshima. Formerly she was known as “I KNOW!!!!!”, but naming her personalised her utterances somewhat.

I live in Japan and the two cars we’ve had had the ETC and navi readers talk to us. In our Impreza she was Shizuko because she spoke very softly, when she spoke at all, and in our Premacy (current car) she’s Matsuko because it’s a Mazda (Matsuda in katakana) and we really weren’t feeling all that creative about it. I hope that when we move back to the States our cars continue talking to us, though.

After thirteen months car less and having to rely on my feet or pubic transport, the 2nd hand mercedes I purchased nearly seven years ago was instantly christened ‘Mercy’……as in mercy, mercy, save me from public transport.

I haven’t named all of my cars, but my current ones have names. The 2004 Pontiac Aztek is known as the Silver Buffalo, because the shape reminds me of a buffalo. The 2009 Pontiac G6 is called Heather, named after a friend of mine who is just delightful.

I have never been much for naming cars myself, but my wife christened my 71 Alfa Spider “Lola” … “As in, “what Lola wants, Lola gets”. I think it’s a jealousy thing but I do have to admit that I have spent far more money on the car in the last year than on Mrs. Lokki.

I do admit to nicknaming her current car though. She has a 1998 328i that we bought new for her, and which currently has 66,000 miles on it and counting but counting slowly. Since it’s spent its life in covered parking and carrying only 110 pounds of neat Japanese girl, it’s in shockingly clean condition. I call it “ The Immaculata. I’m on my fifth car since my wife got her, but my wife refuses to give her up. Anyhow it seems kind of pointless to buy a new car for what is probably only two or three thousand miles a year nowadays.

Finally there was a buddy’s car in High School that we named: it was a beat-up primer-gray 66 Dodge Dart into which he had stuffed a 340/ 4-Speed. it was fast and ratty; very ratty. Missing some of the chrome letters on the trunk lid, it didn’t spell out D O D G E anymore… Just DOG. Thus was christened “The Super Dog”.

Well OK, I’ll bite… My current stable of old Mopars goes like this. The 89 Chrysler TC is named ‘old Red’, not very glamorous but to the point, she is red and has over 275 thousand miles on the clock, the most of any of them. Then there is the 85 Laser which is named ‘Traveler’ as it was my commuter car up until I retired, 313 miles each way to work. There is the 1985 Plymouth Voyager which has the Star Trek name of ‘V ger’, the former commuter car, both over 200 thousand miles on the clocks. A former car, the ’81 Dodge Aries was named ‘Killer’. As it turned out, Killer ended up on the chopping block and gave all it’s good engine parts, less the engine block, to build ‘Traveler’ who is an inter-cooled 2.5L Turbo. My wife’s current car and the absolute newest one in the garage, at 155 thousand miles, is ‘Annie’ so named because I gave that ’94 Dodge Shadow ES to her as an Anniversary present. Her previous car, an ’84 Omni was named ‘Chris’, for Christmas. All but Chris and Killer are regular drivers and fully up to any trip of any length, any time.

My other cars have never gotten nicknames, but the ’77 Electra 225 is, as its profile on this site indicates, “The Green Goddess”. Even though the insides are chewed up a bit, it’s by far the most popular of the 4 big old cars I’ve owned. Old and young, women and men. Some people call it just “The Goddess” or smile and say “how is she?”. Of course, other people call it the Deuce, but in this case I like the “Green Goddess” nickname.

Never named any of my cars or the thirteen motorcycles I had owned. I just refer to them by their given names; the Z, the Honda, the Riv, the Sportster. Usually I just referred to them as “my bike”or “my car”. I didn’t have more than one car or bike until after I was married and I needed to differentiate my vehicle from my wife’s or kid’s.

Nothing too creative name wise with my vehicles
Our Kia we do call by its given name “Rondo” because Rondo is fun to say.
Both our Corolla ,and Taurus are usually called that,though sometimes we say “the Toyota”.

Both my 60 and 67 Imperials are unique and obviously quite different than our daily drivers ,
You would think I, or someone in my family would have come up with an endearing name for either Imperial.
But both are referred to has either “the 67” or “the 60”.

Though if I were to try and name one of the imperials,I think my 67 would do well with the name “Bert”
As in Reynolds or Bacharach.

I have never named my cars, but some of the junkers I owned at one time or another certainly heard me call them very unflattering terms every time something went wrong!

Wifey and I sometimes refer to my Impala as “Imp” for short, but that’s it.

An old friend many years ago had a Chevy window van in college – a 1964 I think – he called it “Arthur”. As far as I know that was the only vehicle he named. I wouldn’t be surprised if that van had a certain permanent “odor” from a certain type of cigarette, but I never got to see the vehicle in person – I was in the service.

I ordered a ’95 short bed Ranger new. When my wife saw it she said “that thing sure is stubby”. Therefore, it was known as Stubby. When it gave particularly good service it was known as Stubby the Wonder Truck. My ’03 Mustang was The Horse. Since I have 2 Mustangs now, the ’66 is known as Red due to it’s color and the ’09 is Blackie. My ’79 Malibu is Boo.
Contrary to what you might think, I usually don’t name my vehicles.

I’ve been the proud owner of Inga and Ella. Both Saab 9-3’s. Ella is a 2006 in the 2.8 V6T Aero spec and she is the apple of my eye. My girlfriend seems to respect this attachment as she got Ella a Valentine’s Day card with a car wash certificate in it. I think I found a keeper.

My parents 72 Pontiac Stationwagon was called “the Barge” for obvious reasons. My 66 Dart was called “the old whore” as it was fun to drive, had a comfortable feel, and I got a lot of bangs for the buck. My mom had a 61 Valient that she not only named but labeled the “Ugly”, again for obvious reasons.

My cars have all had names. The 81 civic was Buster. When Buster died (it was hit and run into the bushes in front of my house), the replacement 88 civic was named Baby Jesus in the hopes that would bring no harm for the car–it lasted 350K miles (for my sister–the next owner). There was an 81 beige volvo 242 named Pork Chop. Next came a gray 91 civic wagon named Babar, followed 17 years later by a 2012 honda fit named Celeste.

I don’t recall ever naming any of my cars. Not that I haven’t thought about it; I’ve just never come up with a name I thought was good enough to say out loud and let other people hear.

I’ve considered calling my current Camaro “Cynthia” or “Cindy”, after a dearly departed girlfriend who died of lung cancer a few years back. But if/when some new female in my life asks why I call my car “Cindy,” I’m not in a hurry to explain to her it was the name of some other woman. Might turn them against my car. So until I find some way out of this impasse, my ‘Maro* shall remain nameless.

Although the ’84 Toyota Cressida I once bought from a friend’s parents did arrive with their pre-exiting moniker “Betsy”, a tradition which I continued to honor… at least when talking to them 🙂

* Jes’ joshin’. I hate that stupid diminutive, it’s as bad as ‘Stang for Mustang. Or ‘Tallica for Metallica. Or ‘Zza for pizza. Anyone too lazy to pronounce only TWO syllables doesn’t deserve pizza.

I named my first car Layla. She was a 1972 Olds Ninety Eight LS. Came with a glove compartment full of 8 track tapes that I ended up keeping longer than the car! The only reason I sold her, was because I found a 1976 Custom Cruiser that had the extra space of a wagon that was very useful both on long trips, and for hauling things. . . that car’s whale like proportions persuaded me to refer to her as Lolita, after an orca whale in the resident L-Pod of Puget Sound.

The Titan is “The Truck”. The Jetta is “The Jetta”. When the VW is being repaired and a wrench slips, something gets dropped and hides in a crevice, or a part refuses to come off or go on, the car then gets many colorful names. When using them in my driveway the louder and more explicit names tend to make my neighbors close their windows or in the case of one rapid succession of new names, an offer to take me to their church.

My first car a 94 Opel Vectra was called POS because either nothing worked or i had no idea how to make anything work.

My second car, a 94 Cadillac Seville STS had no name.

My current one a 97 Ford Expedition has 4 names.
1. “Der Schreibwagen” (mock) german for “the Writing car” since the cargo area is so big i can sit or lie anyway i like and write on my laptop in there. Sometimes for hours.
2. “The old War wagon”, when i have to fuel it. Since it carries a 114 liter tank and the fuel is 1.1 euros per liter. The name is from an episode of Married.. with Children where Al Bundy at one point talks about his Dodge with the words “..after i had gassed up the old War wagon..”
3. “The tank.” Mostly because its size and ground clearance compared to modern European luxury SUVs and also because while driving it i tend to ignore potholes, speedbumps and on non-paved roads even speed limits. Also small bumps and scratches to paint and bumpers.
4. “my normally proportioned car” since despite its size, the proportions are of a normal SUV. As if it was a 1st generation 4Runner at 140% of its original size. Also because at 6’4″ and 265lbs i can get into it without acrobatics and even drive it while wearing a hat!

We have named most of our farm trucks over the years. Smoky (Chev 1/2 ton needed valve seals), Pokey (underpowered Astro van), Junky (self explanatory GM 3/4 T), Noisy (Chev 1/2 T, bad muffler), Thirsty (GM 3/4 ton with 454), and Moby (3/4 ton GMC extended cab longbox, the Great White Whale.) There was another one named Wimpy which I think was the Ford 3/4 ton with the 460 that got repowered with a 302. This just sort of happens around here for some reason.